I'm just a fellow out standing in his field...
The Daily Strumpet is the continuation of the Daily Strumpet newsletter which started in 1983. Anything else is just a cheap ripoff.

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Friday, March 24, 2017

Those idiot republicans....

I didn't think I was going to get a Rose Garden.

I didn't vote for Donald Trump because I thought my healthcare premiums would go down. I voted for Trump because I hate liberals preachy liberals are starting to get under my skin after eight years of a fake negro president,our first sort of, but not quite black president, Bush Lite. I voted for Trump because I think it is insane that I can't clean out a ditch on my own farm. I voted for Trump because I think the gubment is running a protection racket just like the mob with health and safety inspections. I voted for Trump because my liberal friend told me that even though I am the only white male in my department, I got my job because of white privilege.

I expect my healthcare premiums to become unaffordable because the Afordable Care Act institutionalized the graft and corruption of the insurance companies and once it was enacted the insurance people who signed onto it and contributed to the corruption were institutionalized and accepted and the ones who were deemed unworthy were put out of business. Even if the ACA is revoked we are still screwed because the competition that makes the free market work has been eliminated.

Rejection of the ACA may have been akin to Slim Whitman riding the A Bomb in Dr. Strangelove but it was me turning the wheel off the cliff and screw the establishment and screw you pathetic liberals. He put climate change denier in charge of the EPA and a private school supporter in charge of the Education Department. YES!!!! I don't care if it all goes to hell. I love to see the shrill cries and hand wringing on Facebook!

Republicans don't care if you have health care or safe water to drink. That being said the ACA was not the problem. ACA brought many people into the health insurance realm. Many had had no insurance forever and were unhealthy, smokers, drinkers, overweight, diabetic, etc. The underwriters of the insurance companies underestimated that cost. Everyone else's rates rose because that's what they've been doing even before the ACA but at a lower rate than under GWB. Given the fact that hospitals and clinics cannot refuse to give care by law those costs end up being factored into charges to those who do have coverage as 'uncompensated care,' so we pay anyway. Insurance rates will NOT come down if ACA is ever repealed. The GOP health plan would not have lowered rates. Trump repeatedly said during the campaign and after taking office that he had a plan that was cheaper and better and that he'd release it in two weeks...and then two weeks...and it appears it was another Trump Lie; he has nothing but false and broken promises to offer.

The insurance industry is free market at it's best. Private companies offer solutions and charge what they can, pay as little as they can and make profits to make Wall Street happy. Free market health care will never be affordable again with the exception of narrow products for certifiably healthy people...and as I said earlier you'll still pay for the decrepit uninsured indirectly. Trump has nothing. The best that he's done is get people talking and acting and getting involved; the young people were motivated by Sanders and that's good. The dyed in the wool Democrats were lazy and lost touch with rural America and the average family long ago. Trump appealed to the disenfranchised (of course the disenfranchised are the first who will suffer at his work...e.g. coal miners). Most of his appointees are right out of the swamp. The education woman is a rich idiot. All of his appointees are super-rich; super-rich people think the only talented and qualified people are other super-rich people. Chief strategist, Steve Bannon is an admitted Leninist who wants everything to collapse and somehow re-emerge as a new nationalist/populist/white country independent from the rest of the world. He's crazy. Trump knows nothing,that's why his kids followed him to Washington; his family knows he's a know-nothing, mentally ill guy.

This will shake things up but remember that guy is carrying the football and sees no reason not to use it.

This morning I ran a few saw chains through the grinder thinking about complex angles and appropriateness to crosscut, ripping, wet, green, etc., and that was satisfying. This afternoon, after my gig at the small business the dentist will tell me that my deteriorating teeth are to be expected as part of 'the downhill slide.'

Spring is arriving which is good.

In response to Mr. Smythe's comment the Republicans control the White House and the Senate and the House and they have not accomplished their primary goal. Late last week they started to blame Democrats for failure to repeal ACA. Unbelievable but real.

Of course the goal was to destroy the system and start over. I purposely voted for destruction. Some of us just made the mistake of thinking that if Trump would appear on TV shoes and talk dirt on Howard Stern he was a regular working class stiff.Perhaps the goal will be achieved. I suspect the result will be completely different.The ACA did permanent damage to our chaotic healthcare system. The excessive burden of regulation and paperwork and frustration put the Doctors and Dentists and Chiropractors I like out of business already. They will not return.Our healthcare system is not free-enterprise. When you have a "too big to fail" mentality and when you can form a monopoly to keep prices high then you don't have free enterprise.If people can't afford healthcare then prices should go down. The healthcare bureaucracy will continue charging what it can get away with.It will never stop raining...

Left to itself the healthcare insurance and drug industry will never be responsive to those who need but cannot afford but will instead focus on those that can afford. It's an overall bad deal. Healthcare in Canada is about $100/month according to a guy I talked to over lunch who talked to a Canadian in Sarasota, Florida; that must be true. My son has been living Denmark (huge taxes, free healthcare) and London (moderate taxes, free healthcare). In all of those markets Doctors make a bit less and Wall Street is taken out of the equation. It seems that it's either going to be government driven/mandated or Wall Street. Years ago I worked for our state's Blue Cross plan in the underwriting area. You spend a lot of time arguing about Usual, Customary & Reasonable charges and continually adjust rates to cover those UCR payments and market against every other carrier. The consumer is left to attempt to understand the bottom line cost of their own health plan applied to their utilization. This is all unpleasant. You are a music fan..I particularly like this guy out of Chicago who puts out good podcasts on the website "The Best Radio You Have Never Heard." Currently I'm listening to his Chuck Berry tribute which has made me forget what I started writing about although I'm sure the Russians are monitoring this. I appreciate the opportunity for discussion and dialogue.